It was the school holidays and a big camping adventure was about to take place. The Jeep was packed to the roof, as was the trailer. Everything but the kitchen sink! Australia is a big place and we don't mind the distance covered when we're ensured with a good camping spot. So 7hrs plus driving up the coast and then inland to a beautiful spot called Cania Gorge isn't considered all that far. Especially when the crazy husband driver keeps it exciting by passing every car in sight. We had stopped at the last little town before our destination to load up on refrigerated items to find that the supermarket was locking its doors as we pulled up. We circled around a little and pulled up in the main street to find a 2nd mini supermarket with everything we needed with 15mins to spare. Now this is where the story gets a little supernatural. My husband had only just climbed out of the car when a kind gentleman came up to him and pointed out that we were missing two bolts that had snapped off the wheel on the trailer. I'm not too sure of the mechanics of how the wheel and axle and bolts etc all work but what I do understand is that if this man hadn't shown us what had happened to the trailer…at the speed we had been going… that wheel would have fallen off. We would have lost the trailer, possibly flipped the jeep and who knows what else.
Now, I believe in angels. I believe in men in white linen. The great crowd of witnesses. There is another world around us that goes on and we are completely unaware until we stop and look. That man that warned us? I believe he'd been here before, walking amongst us keeping us safe. There is a lot of darkness in our world but God keeps it balanced by sending his light and glory to walk amongst us. Think I'm going nuts? Check out the bible, Genesis 19, lot had two of these men visit him and save him from the evil in Sodom. If they were around back them what's not to say they aren't now? So next time you have someone help you out, take a closer look.. Do they look old in wisdom but yet young in skin?
Hebrews 13 v 2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by doing so some have unwittingly entertained angels.
Tuesday 4 November 2014
Thursday 8 May 2014
Endurance
To succeed you need to have endurance. Too many times we give up when the going gets tough. It feels like the luscious rolling fields of green grass where you lay on your back gazing up at the blue sky with daisy chains in your hair dry up and turn into a dusty desert. No life anywhere to be seen and you here a voice shouting at you "Pick yourself up and get moving!" Maybe for a while it felt nice to play in the sand but nothing worthwhile is going to grow in the desert. Or does it? If you can sit in the dry places where nothing is going for you and find strength to move on, winds coming against you and yet you find it in yourself to find a song and sing it… you've grown endurance. Endurance or long-suffering is a fruit of the spirit.. it's not a gift, it's a fruit. Therefore it has to be grown. So, if you feel life is unfair at the moment and you've had your peace stripped away remember, life is meant to produce fruit. You're not going to be in the desert forever. Just as long as it takes to grow the biggest, ripest piece of fruit you can offer.
The fruit of endurance comes somewhere in the middle of love and self control. For instance, I love God. Sometimes I feel like he's so close to me that I'm sitting inside of him. Other times I feel like I'm sitting in the desert and he's nowhere to be seen. It's those times that God recalls the most, because its then that I find endurance and through self control I pass off the temptation to wander my own way and I choose to draw near to him anyway.
My daughter Summer loves to dance so I enrolled her in ballet/hiphop lessons. She did it for a term and realised it was hard work and boring and was going to take years before she would be flying through the air twirling and spinning like the professionals. She dropped out. No fruit there yet! I hope she does find a passion thats she's willing to endure through the learning of, to then be granted the satisfaction of success. You have to love something/someone enough to endure the tests and trials and through determination and self control great fruit is produced!
I encourage you to persevere with the things/people you love, because when you find something you're passionate about there will always be challenging times. You may not receive your favoured outcome today or tomorrow but when you find success through endurance it will all be worth it.
The fruit of endurance comes somewhere in the middle of love and self control. For instance, I love God. Sometimes I feel like he's so close to me that I'm sitting inside of him. Other times I feel like I'm sitting in the desert and he's nowhere to be seen. It's those times that God recalls the most, because its then that I find endurance and through self control I pass off the temptation to wander my own way and I choose to draw near to him anyway.
My daughter Summer loves to dance so I enrolled her in ballet/hiphop lessons. She did it for a term and realised it was hard work and boring and was going to take years before she would be flying through the air twirling and spinning like the professionals. She dropped out. No fruit there yet! I hope she does find a passion thats she's willing to endure through the learning of, to then be granted the satisfaction of success. You have to love something/someone enough to endure the tests and trials and through determination and self control great fruit is produced!
I encourage you to persevere with the things/people you love, because when you find something you're passionate about there will always be challenging times. You may not receive your favoured outcome today or tomorrow but when you find success through endurance it will all be worth it.
Wednesday 30 April 2014
Being thankful
In this moment, right now, what are you thinking of? Where is your heart at? What happened yesterday? What's coming up in your future? Are you worried about too many things that you can't find it in yourself to enjoy right now? It's so easy to live in the past or try and pull the future forward to now. Last year we decided as a family to move back to NZ. At the time it was all exciting, putting our house on the market, buying land over there to build on. It was all happening.
And now, 7 months later we're still here. The house hasn't sold and other things have come up that have changed our plans slightly. I was finding myself constantly thinking.. well, when the house sells or when our debtors pay us back we can go. I was stuck in the future somewhere and the more I thought about it the further it seemed to drift away. God pulled me up on this and asked me why I wasn't enjoying what I was doing now. In this moment. He said that it's a good thing to have dreams and vision and focus on the future but its not such a great idea to stay there. There is so much happening right now that is easily missed and it doesn't come back, ever. So where are your thoughts right now? Did you notice the person you love today? When you left the house today did you whisper a thank you to God for his provisions? There is beauty all around us and even in the deepest darkest times when you feel like your going nowhere there will always be a silver lining. Even if its just learning to have patience.
I'm now grateful for the extra time I'm having here in Australia. With this fantastic weather and the great friends I've made after 13 years of living here. What's coming in my future is going to be impressive I'm sure of that but what I have right now is beautiful and I'm going to embrace it and be thankful. You know God says to enter into his gates with thanksgiving and praise. Be thankful. Thankful to God who loves you. Thankful to your partner, children, friends, angels there is so much working for you. Its up to you to find it, today, right now.
And now, 7 months later we're still here. The house hasn't sold and other things have come up that have changed our plans slightly. I was finding myself constantly thinking.. well, when the house sells or when our debtors pay us back we can go. I was stuck in the future somewhere and the more I thought about it the further it seemed to drift away. God pulled me up on this and asked me why I wasn't enjoying what I was doing now. In this moment. He said that it's a good thing to have dreams and vision and focus on the future but its not such a great idea to stay there. There is so much happening right now that is easily missed and it doesn't come back, ever. So where are your thoughts right now? Did you notice the person you love today? When you left the house today did you whisper a thank you to God for his provisions? There is beauty all around us and even in the deepest darkest times when you feel like your going nowhere there will always be a silver lining. Even if its just learning to have patience.
I'm now grateful for the extra time I'm having here in Australia. With this fantastic weather and the great friends I've made after 13 years of living here. What's coming in my future is going to be impressive I'm sure of that but what I have right now is beautiful and I'm going to embrace it and be thankful. You know God says to enter into his gates with thanksgiving and praise. Be thankful. Thankful to God who loves you. Thankful to your partner, children, friends, angels there is so much working for you. Its up to you to find it, today, right now.
Tuesday 22 April 2014
The Best Surprise! Happy 70th Dad
I'm sitting here at my desk and to my left is the funniest picture of my family. It was taken at my Dad's 70th. Myself and my eldest sister can barely hold ourselves up from laughing so hard, whilst my middle sister is looking radiant (she always takes good photos). Dad is the happiest I've ever seen him. You see, behind the scenes my sisters, step mum and I had planned this whole surprise for Dads 70th and we pulled it off so well, he honestly had no idea we were coming. My eldest sister and I decided to leave our families in Australia for the weekend and venture over to New Zealand without Dad knowing. At first we could not find the perfect flights that weren't going to cost the earth to get there. We searched for days and the tickets kept getting more and more expensive. I had all but given up when I said to God "Do you want me to go over there or not?" And he whispers in my heart, "Do you want to go?" I thought about it and I said very honestly "Yes." He then says to me "Jetabroad, go and look now." I argued on my way to the computer with him because I'd already looked on that sight and there was nothing. You shouldn't argue with God if you don't like losing because he is always right. There in front of me were the perfect flights and the cheapest price yet. We booked straight away and took on the rest of the day over excited, jumping around, "I can't believe we're doing this!" I went back on the site to check about baggage and it was completely gone. Very mysterious, I like that:)
Everything from then on was perfect. Organising our children and all that mum stuff and then to sit on the plane with a hot cross bun and a magazine and……freedom!!! It was amazing to say the least. Our step mum meeting us, the wind and the smell of cow poo, the supermarket stop off and then SURPRISE!!! I've never seen Dad so lost for words. We really blessed him, it still makes me smile when I think about it. Hence I keep that hilarious photo on my desk. Our other sister who lives in NZ came through and it was the first time we've all been together, with no children or husbands for probably 20 years? Every moment we were there was fantastic, even the rainy day.
Before our flight home we caught up with Mum's family which was extra special. But the icing on the cake was the flight home. We caught our first flight ok but it was running 10 mins late and it subsequently made us too late to board our next flight home. Quietly, we were freaking out. I said to God, "but you gave us those tickets? Why would you set us up to miss our main flight home?" No, I thought God doesn't do that. He must have something up his sleeve. I pleaded with the man behind the counter and he offered his help. Actually he was amazing. He took us over to the desk we needed to be at and left us with a kind lady. She couldn't get us another flight until the next day. When the first gentleman came over to check we were ok he happened to see a lady he knew who might just be able to help us out. The same airline that had said no they had no seats left, and here we are speaking to the lady in charge and she said yes. They had two seats left.
Phew, we were on our way home and we really didn't care who we were flying with we just wanted to get back. As we were walking through the airport God reminded me of how I really wanted to have burger king. (I know its a strange request) And there before me like a choir of singing angels stood burger king. I laughed. Aloud. A lot. Because we no longer had to rush we had plenty of time to shop, eat and even have fun with some makeup. It was awesome.
As we walked up to board our plane and handed our tickets over, the air hostess points us up the stairs, "Good evening Mrs Horton, you're upstairs in business."
AHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Keep cool, look like you've done this a thousand times before, I was telling myself. We sat down in absolute awe of what out Heavenly father had just done for us. It was like, "Well girls, you stepped out in faith to surprise your earthly Dad and now your heavenly Dad wants to surprise you."
So blessed. It was the best flight, to top off the best weekend.
I hope your next holiday will be this successful!
Everything from then on was perfect. Organising our children and all that mum stuff and then to sit on the plane with a hot cross bun and a magazine and……freedom!!! It was amazing to say the least. Our step mum meeting us, the wind and the smell of cow poo, the supermarket stop off and then SURPRISE!!! I've never seen Dad so lost for words. We really blessed him, it still makes me smile when I think about it. Hence I keep that hilarious photo on my desk. Our other sister who lives in NZ came through and it was the first time we've all been together, with no children or husbands for probably 20 years? Every moment we were there was fantastic, even the rainy day.
Before our flight home we caught up with Mum's family which was extra special. But the icing on the cake was the flight home. We caught our first flight ok but it was running 10 mins late and it subsequently made us too late to board our next flight home. Quietly, we were freaking out. I said to God, "but you gave us those tickets? Why would you set us up to miss our main flight home?" No, I thought God doesn't do that. He must have something up his sleeve. I pleaded with the man behind the counter and he offered his help. Actually he was amazing. He took us over to the desk we needed to be at and left us with a kind lady. She couldn't get us another flight until the next day. When the first gentleman came over to check we were ok he happened to see a lady he knew who might just be able to help us out. The same airline that had said no they had no seats left, and here we are speaking to the lady in charge and she said yes. They had two seats left.
Phew, we were on our way home and we really didn't care who we were flying with we just wanted to get back. As we were walking through the airport God reminded me of how I really wanted to have burger king. (I know its a strange request) And there before me like a choir of singing angels stood burger king. I laughed. Aloud. A lot. Because we no longer had to rush we had plenty of time to shop, eat and even have fun with some makeup. It was awesome.
As we walked up to board our plane and handed our tickets over, the air hostess points us up the stairs, "Good evening Mrs Horton, you're upstairs in business."
AHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Keep cool, look like you've done this a thousand times before, I was telling myself. We sat down in absolute awe of what out Heavenly father had just done for us. It was like, "Well girls, you stepped out in faith to surprise your earthly Dad and now your heavenly Dad wants to surprise you."
So blessed. It was the best flight, to top off the best weekend.
I hope your next holiday will be this successful!
Thursday 10 April 2014
Internal heavenly garden
It's been over a year since I last wrote a blog! Don't let yourself start thinking I've given it up… quite the opposite. In fact I felt so inspired with my new found passion to write that I dropped the blog and started to write my first book. I finished it last month and then realised that the writing of the book was the easy part, having it edited and published is taking what seems like a much longer process. Which sounds to me like I have a valuable lesson in patience and trust.
So, what have I been up to over the past year, apart from writing a novel? Ha ha too much to comprehend putting in one blog and probably far too personal for the most part. I did stop going to church which wasn't the easiest decision to make. God wanted to teach me about family and in his beautiful way of leading my thoughts closer to his, he has shown me what he meant. I grew up with a devote christian Mum who took us to church every sunday and a Dad who played golf instead. I was doing the exact same thing in my own family life and it was horrible. I struggled with the thought of 'if I don't go to church God won't love me'… What he has shown me is if I can still have fellowship with likeminded believers I will keep growing in him. He has taken me to places I can't even explain, without you thinking I've gone a little nuts. At the end of it all I love my family, no pressure to be like everyone else. And thats where I was falling short. We aren't meant to keep up appearances because that's what is expected of us.
I have been live streaming an amazing church in LA when I can because it is important to receive teaching from those in learned places. So I'm not entirely churchless lol. My bible has become my best friend, I read it differently now. I had no idea how many numbers of importance are hidden in there. It's like a map of the road that leads straight to unlocking heaven on earth. And why did it take so long for me to realise heaven is as close as the air we breathe? Let me show you what I mean. After you've read this find a little quiet place and close your eyes. Talk to the holy spirit, he's there waiting to hear from you..always. Ask him to come to your garden and then let your sanctified imagination start working. You need to picture a garden. It may have a bench seat, a river/stream, trees, flower gardens, a swing perhaps? Last time I visited my garden Jesus met me there and he kept putting up easels in front of me asking me to paint what I could see. Time spent here is refreshing and it brings intimacy with God in your life. I like to share a swing with Jesus and talk to him about pretty much anything and everything. Go on, give it a try and if at first you can't see anything, try again and don't give up trying. I pray your eyes will be opened to the heaven that is so accessible to you and that your life will be changed because of it. Amen.
So, what have I been up to over the past year, apart from writing a novel? Ha ha too much to comprehend putting in one blog and probably far too personal for the most part. I did stop going to church which wasn't the easiest decision to make. God wanted to teach me about family and in his beautiful way of leading my thoughts closer to his, he has shown me what he meant. I grew up with a devote christian Mum who took us to church every sunday and a Dad who played golf instead. I was doing the exact same thing in my own family life and it was horrible. I struggled with the thought of 'if I don't go to church God won't love me'… What he has shown me is if I can still have fellowship with likeminded believers I will keep growing in him. He has taken me to places I can't even explain, without you thinking I've gone a little nuts. At the end of it all I love my family, no pressure to be like everyone else. And thats where I was falling short. We aren't meant to keep up appearances because that's what is expected of us.
I have been live streaming an amazing church in LA when I can because it is important to receive teaching from those in learned places. So I'm not entirely churchless lol. My bible has become my best friend, I read it differently now. I had no idea how many numbers of importance are hidden in there. It's like a map of the road that leads straight to unlocking heaven on earth. And why did it take so long for me to realise heaven is as close as the air we breathe? Let me show you what I mean. After you've read this find a little quiet place and close your eyes. Talk to the holy spirit, he's there waiting to hear from you..always. Ask him to come to your garden and then let your sanctified imagination start working. You need to picture a garden. It may have a bench seat, a river/stream, trees, flower gardens, a swing perhaps? Last time I visited my garden Jesus met me there and he kept putting up easels in front of me asking me to paint what I could see. Time spent here is refreshing and it brings intimacy with God in your life. I like to share a swing with Jesus and talk to him about pretty much anything and everything. Go on, give it a try and if at first you can't see anything, try again and don't give up trying. I pray your eyes will be opened to the heaven that is so accessible to you and that your life will be changed because of it. Amen.
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